


Earning one's freedom

by Zireael07



Series: A kinder, gentler universe [2]
Category: Deus Ex (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fake Character Death, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:01:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24623617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zireael07/pseuds/Zireael07
Summary: JC Denton has escaped capture, and even UNATCO's top agents - Agents Navarre and Hermann - could not detain him. Joseph Manderley is no longer the director - his fate is unknown and a certain Walton Simons has been "parachuted in" from Washington. After three days of radio silence, Anna Navarre tunes back in.A single infolink call turns more than one life upside down. How will the people at UNATCO react to the news?
Relationships: Gunther Hermann/Anna Navarre
Series: A kinder, gentler universe [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1780300
Comments: 6
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kameiko](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kameiko/gifts).



_UNATCO headquarters, 2053_

Alex Jacobson sighed and rubbed his eyes. Agent Navarre had tuned back in after a couple days of sporadic reports to the tune of 'No signs of Denton, city's crawling with troopers so we'll know when he shows up'. She knocked briskly on the door in a- 'run-down' was probably the most favorable adjective Alex could use for the establishment- hotel. There was no reply, and when she pressed the doorknob, she found it open and let herself in.  
'Taranto-' she said aloud, loud enough for the occupant of the room to hear, if there was any.  
That cleared things up. The dingy room had to be a meeting point for the two UNATCO agents. The password she used was one Gunther and she had used for many years- so many Alex could not recall when it started, and he was never made aware of what it referred to. He had a hundred guesses, but he was fairly sure only Hermann and Navarre knew the truth - and most likely it was something they shared, some joint mission years ago. The expected countersign was usually 'five eight nine', but Alex knew there was a second variant, where it was 'twenty-one' - and it usually depended on which of the agents initiated the exchange.  
But the answer did not come, the room was silent. Navarre cleared her throat and repeated herself, assuming her partner had fallen asleep waiting. No reply. The view changed as Anna looked around. She stepped forward, only to stop suddenly - and Jacobson swore as he saw what she was staring at. Agent Hermann's uniform jacket, carelessly thrown over the back of a chair. His plasma gun propped against the far wall. Even if he was in the adjoining bathroom, he should have heard her give the password. Alex didn't like the lack of answer - with any other soldier, he'd'have attributed it to being blackout drunk, but Gunther never indulged - and certainly not to excess - on the job.  
As their eyes and ears at the headquarters, he made a judgment call to elevate the feed to the boss right now instead of waiting for the situation to clarify itself. He somehow doubted Mr Manderley's replacement would make decisions as fast as the old man did.  
Anna Navarre moved cautiously forward and then stopped sharply, breath hissing in a sudden inhale. Alex could see the exact same thing she did- a bed, bedsheets tangled in a way that made it clear that it had... been used quite vigorously, but the- occupant was nowhere to be seen. And then her gaze moved, and Jacobson could just barely make out a person's legs tangled in the sheet, and as her gaze slid upwards, it became clear that it was a man, sprawled on his back, utterly and completely naked and clearly- _interrupted_ in the middle of things. The other -person was nowhere to be seen. Navarre's gaze did not linger on his nakedness, as it might have in other circumstances, but continued to move upwards, to the hips shining metallic in the moonlight, and the naked torso-  
\- and three neat bullet holes in the man's chest, roughly in the heart area. The chest that did _not_ rise or fall. Alex did not like the first assumption that popped into his brain, for _damn_ sure did not like it. Navarre's gaze stayed fixed on the wounds for a minute or so, and then slowly continued on the path upwards, staring at an armored neck and a strong jaw- the hacker realized he was feeling vaguely ill with the oncoming realization, he was very definitely hoping he was wrong-  
And as Anna's gaze fell on the man's face, Jacobson was nearly sick himself. Gunther Hermann's red augmented eyes stared at the ceiling, glinting dully in the moonlight, with none of their own light illuminating them. His face was as pale as every other bit of him, too pale for him to be anything but- -DEAD.  
'No- _Gunther-_ ' Navarre's voice was unlike any time he'd heard it.  
She leapt onto the bed, grabbed him by the shoulders and started shaking him, heedless of anything else.  
'Wake up, dammit! Just wake up!' she shrieked.  
Agent Hermann's head rolled onto her shoulder, when she slapped him across the face intending to wake him up, his eyes dim and empty. Anna continued to scream and shake him, to no avail. Alex tried to force words past his tight throat, to point out that the man was gone, but even when he finally said so, Navarre paid him no attention. When it failed to achieve the expected result in a couple of minutes, she stopped and just stared straight ahead, her eyes glazing over, Gunther sprawled halfway across her lap.  
When Anna shifted several moments later, Jacobson expected her to stand up. She moved the- body, maneuvering so that she was free to do so, so that the deadweight would not hinder her, pulling her legs underneath herself to give herself better leverage... and then was distracted, hand running over Gunther's exposed wounds, over his muscular neck, then his jaw, over and over. Alex doubted she was even aware of what she was doing, based on the- well, _mechanical_ \- repetitive quality of the movement.  
And then- Navarre leaned over her dead partner, and _pressed her lips_ to his cold, large ones. Just a moment, and so short that for an instant, Jacobson thought he'd imagined it, if not for her own hand gently touching her mouth a while later.  
It was just a momentary weakness, as the agent straightened herself and made for the chair. Anna picked up Gunther's jacket, her hands fisting in it, bringing it to her face for a moment- no doubt searching for the familiar smell- and then turned back around with stiff, mechanical moves, sitting back on the bed and wrapping Hermann in it. With the same stiff, jerky motions, she paced the room until she found his uniform trousers and belt, and clearly she had no idea what to do next, for the longest while.  
Alex thought she looked... lost, for the first time that he could ever recall, and then she undid the zip and moved the tangled sheet aside, and lifted Hermann's foot, his leg limp like a ragdoll's. The body was not completely stiff yet, and she was able to wrangle it into the lower part of the uniform, eyes firmly fixed on the man, only looking away when she had to- handle his- bits and pull the trousers up over his hips. Jacobson supposed the man would've appreciated the gesture, the way she tried to preserve his dignity even in the face of- everything. Having done the belt, she peered critically at her handiwork, before deeming it not up to standards, and undoing the jacket again- only to spend the next minutes wrangling Gunther's large limbs into the sleeves of his uniform. Even ordinarily, it wouldn't have been an easy task, and _now_... He expected her to cross Gunther's hands over his chest once she was done, but she left them lying rigid at the sides.   
Anna smoothed the final wrinkles before standing up, her breathing short and ragged- if it were any other woman, Alex would've said she sounded like she was about to cry. She did not. She crossed the room to pick up Hermann's gun and then went for the door - only turning around on the threshold. She gave Hermann- lying unmoving on the bed- one last look, her own hand on the periphery of the feed- it took the handler a moment to realize she was saluting him, and then briskly left, the door slamming closed behind her even as she muttered:  
'Denton, I'll get you!'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Parallels to the canon events are on purpose.
> 
> Chapters end where they do for dramatic effect. There will be more (all of them from the perspective of UNATCO, sorry, no A&G POVs in this part of the series).  
> Up next, Alex and Jaime discuss the new situation and discover what 'Taranto' referred to.


	2. Chapter 2

_UNATCO headquarters_

Jaime Reyes looked up from the computer screen as the door to his lab banged open. Jacobson stood on the threshold, wild hair sticking up every which way, just for an instant before crossing the room in large strides and slapping a stack of papers on the desk. The hacker's blue eyes were wild, so the Mexican reached for the documents immediately, only to freeze as his brain processed what he saw - a still of a man's chest, deathly pale, with three neat bullet holes in the heart area.  
Jacobson took a deep breath before biting out: 'Do you reckon he's a goner, doc?'  
Reyes did not need to look twice to provide an answer to this query. 'Looks like. Do you have more pictures?'  
The hacker shook his head. 'That's all I got from the feed-' he paused and his eyes flicked briefly to the still before slowly moving up to meet Jaime's eyes. 'Jaime, it's Gunther...'  
It took a moment for the words to reach his brain, but once they did, Reyes sank heavily into his chair. Now that he looked at the still again, he could recognize the pale indigo lines leading to Hermann's augmented limbs, and the armored neck.  
'Are you sure?'  
'As certain as I can be. Agent Navarre found him- dressed him back up-' Jacobson shook his head, pressing his fingers to the bridge of his nose.  
The doctor moved the still aside, only to find Alex had printed a KIA form and started filling it out. The name and date stood out starkly against the white paper - GUNTHER HERMANN, 10.05.2053. He scanned the rest quickly only to see Alex had estimated the time of death as less than 8 hours prior to discovery. He glanced up.  
'Less than 8 hours?' he asked.  
The hacker coughed. 'No signs of _rigor mortis_ , as far as I could tell, when Anna was- wrangling him into his uniform'  
The damned door banged open again, and Jaime opened his mouth to snap at the intruder for disturbing the medbay - only to quickly close it as he saw a frazzled looking Janice Reed.  
'Alex, I've been looking for you- Mr Simons and I saw the feed-' she burst out.  
Then her gaze settled on the paperwork on the desk, and before Reyes could shuffle them aside, her eyes widened and her legs trembled. She grabbed the closest thing for a support - one of the chairs - and Jacobson quickly helped her into the other one.  
'It's- it's true?' she whispered, her face paling. 'How- who-?'  
'Agent Navarre seemed to immediately assume Denton was to blame. Normally I would've said something about jumping to conclusions, but- Hermann was clearly _ambushed_ \- the level of precision needed- in what I assume was complete darkness-' the hacker shook his head. 'It is a reasonable assumption'  
The secretary winced visibly at the word 'ambushed', and Jaime finally gave in to his curiosity.  
'What do you mean ambushed? Agent Navarre was not with him when-?'  
That question earned him two sets of winces.  
'No. Agent Navarre discovered him when she came to the meeting point- he did not reply to the password- he, er, must've been with a woman when he was-' Alex looked extremely embarrassed.  
'I can't believe Denton would shoot an unarmed- naked- man-' Janice chimed in with another wince.  
Jaime Reyes muttered several choice swear words under his breath. JC had struck him as a good kid, and they've formed a quick rapport, further reinforced by the fact the kid could speak some Spanish. Coming to a decision, he shuffled the paperwork aside and rummaged through the medicine cabinet to find a bottle hidden in the back.  
'I kept it for- well, it's no medicinal alcohol, but it'll do in a pinch- but now- here's to Gunther' he murmured, pouring a small amount into three glasses.  
'Gunther...' the secretary echoed, clinking her glass against his and Alex's.  
There was a long moment of silence, each of them undoubtedly summoning their own memories of Major Hermann - and there was a wealth of those, definitely, twenty or so years' worth of those.  
'Jaime?' Jacobson asked hesitantly. 'Do you know what 'Taranto' is? I tried asking Hermann several times, but he only smiled and said nothing-'  
The doctor stretched out his long legs and swirled his drink for a moment.  
'Taranto, as far as I know, is an Italian city.'  
'Were they there on a mission once or something?'  
'If they were, you'd probably be the first person to know, considering the infolinks-' Reed cut in, sensibly.  
Jaime rubbed his hand over his face. The name kept niggling at his mind.  
'Taranto... Taranto... no, I don't think it's a mission. I think it's something from Anna's youth. Maybe where she joined the military?'  
Alex shook his head.  
'Nope, can't be it. It doesn't fit. The expected answers are 'twenty-one' and 'five eight nine', and I think we can all agree the former is a person's age. Anna's, most likely.'  
'Twenty one? That would mean year 2026...' Janice trailed off as Reyes barely bit back an exclamation, his face brightening.  
'Alex, I think that's it! Can you check what happened in Taranto in the year?'  
'On it...' the hacker murmured, his fingers skimming his datapad. 'Mediterranean Games? Anna was a sports buff?'  
'What events were being contested? Anything she might've been interested in?'  
'Oh, the standard... athletics, archery, fencing, shooting-'  
'Shooting!' Reed straightened up. 'I imagine she had fun pointing out athletes' inaccuracies, each and every one-'  
The men shared a smile for a moment and Alex did not need a prompt to check out the event. He whistled suddenly.  
'Wow, neat! Five- eight- nine- listen to this: "A Junior World Record was set at 2026 Mediterranean Games in Taranto, remaining unbeaten for 27 years so far. The score is 589, a four points' improvement on the previous record, set by- "' here, Jacobson let loose a startled oath- and dropped the datapad.  
'No- fucking- way-' the hacker said slowly, his blue eyes huge and startled.  
'What?' Jaime asked, reaching forward, and Alex slowly turned the pad around to face them.  
 ** _589 Spain Anna Navarre JWR_**  
Reyes gaped at the pad for the longest while, and then started murmuring a string of Spanish imprecations.  
'Coincidence?' Reed asked.  
The hacker picked up the datapad, only to pull up a video. It started partway through the event, and from what the Mexican could tell, the Spanish commentators were going wild, with two of the nations' athletes duking it out for the Gold. Both girls looked mostly the same from the camera's point of view, slim and dark-haired, and ear protection covered up most of the face, leaving only the back of the head visible. One of the girls wore her hair medium long and unfancy, and the other had hers braided. Jaime supposed the plain one was Anna - if this was indeed Anna Navarre and not some elaborate hoax. The assumption only lasted a couple of minutes, as the braided girl cursed and the scorelist was shown. _NAVARRE, Anna_ slipped ahead of _RAMIREZ, Maria_ , and the score was already waaay past five hundred.  
With three rounds remaining, Navarre did not slip, not even once. Calm and collected, as though she had done it hundreds of times, she aced her shots, not letting go of the advantage. Two points grew into five and six. By the time the final round came, the crowd was going wild, everyone anticipating a high score. Once the scores were tallied, there was a moment of silence, and then- a roar of the assembled spectators, and a man in red-and-yellow vaulting over the barriers to hug the winner while her compatriot yanked the ear protection off furiously. The girl calmly took hers off and made sure the pistol was secure before turning around and returning the hug.  
The camera zoomed in on her face and Jaime slammed the pause button. A pair of calm grey eyes in a pale face framed by black hair - without doubt, a younger Major Navarre. He restarted the video and they could all tell when she saw the scoreboard, her eyes widening and her face brightening in an expression of pure delight before letting the coach sweep her off the stool. The commentators were yammering something about a pure talent, and wondering at a lack of support in the stands. Reyes did not. Agent Navarre, as far as he knew, did not have any remaining family at this point of time, and definitely not in Spain.  
'How the- _demonios_ \- did we not know?!' he asked once he was able to speak again.  
Janice Reed could only offer a helpless shrug.  
'She's always been very private, I am not surprised that she only told Hermann-' and there, the poor woman burst into tears 'What will she do without-? They've been assigned to each other nearly constantly for twenty-four years-'  
'That's a question every one of us is asking now...'  
'-except Mr Simons' the secretary said darkly. 'He didn't seem to care at all that we lost a man- one of our best-'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The date is just an educated guess - per canon, the whole of Deus Ex 1 happens over a couple of days (with the majority of time passing on the helicopter/plane to/from HK). I always lengthen this to a couple of weeks in my canon era fics. There are no references to the season/weather in the game, but the troops do not wear winter gear and no one complains about the cold, so it can either be the spring or summer, and the latter would probably be too hot for the iconic trenchcoat... So spring it is.
> 
> In one of the leaked beta videos, JC does speak some Spanish to Jaime, and the released game heavily implies Jaime is friends with both Denton brothers.
> 
> Simons not caring at all and being an asshole is intended - his canon 'box/bucket of bolts' comment *is* uncaring and asshole-y as f*ck, especially considering it refers to a man freshly killed (or not, I recently learned that the holo does play if you sprint past Gunther to the computer as many speedrunners do - in which case, the comment is even more asshole-y, *Gunther* himself being told he is an 'old box of bolts')
> 
> All the other little backstory details are my own imagination filling in the blanks Deus Ex 1 left for us - backstory details this series shares with all my other series btw.  
> Mediterranean Games in 2026 in Taranto are really planned IRL, although with the pandemic, the intervening games have been delayed by a year, so it's likely Taranto will happen in 2027 IRL instead - but this part of the backstory was written before the pandemic hit.
> 
> I know what happens next (angst town, mostly, but on the upside - remember the 'Fake Death' tag?), but I have to figure out what order is better for the events. Luckily I have a long weekend now :)


	3. Chapter 3

Janice Reed peeked out into the main corridor at UNATCO. Uniformed troopers were hastily jumping out of someone's way, and the secretary could only honestly think of two people that would warrant such behaviour, except the chief himself. One of them was recently dead, and the other was incommunicado, her infolink constantly off. Then the person rounded the corner and he saw it was Major Navarre indeed. Her pistol was in the holster, but that did not mean she was unarmed - a combat knife was prominent in a thigh holster, and the way the grip was worn did not indicate her own weapon but rather, Hermann's. The other memento was slung across her back, Gunther's plasma rifle too big and heavy for her to carry it in her arms the way he would have.  
Agent Navarre walked through the crowd without acknowledging anyone, not even a shocked-looking Reyes leaning over against the wall. She did not seem to be in a hurry as she walked past, in the direction of the chief's office - which meant the secretary had to hurry back to her usual post in front of said office. Anna did not knock nor wait. She just let herself in. Such a blatant disregard for rules was a far cry from her usual behaviour, and Janice was glad the door was not fully closed.  
'I would like to report-' Anna Navarre stood in front of Mr Simons, her back ramrod straight, her hands clasped behind her back. '- Agent Hermann has been killed in action.'  
Joseph Manderley's new replacement did not react, at least not outwardly.  
'We know, we saw the infolink as he was found.' he said dispassionately without even looking up at her.  
Janice did not like the impersonal way he phrased it. As it turned out, neither did Hermann's assigned partner.  
' _I_ found him' she replied, putting visible stress on the word I. 'And I would like to request an escort back to France, in order to- retrieve him.'  
Walton Simons finally reacted to the report, placing his hands palm down on the table and looking straight in the agent's face.  
'Retrieve? I can find no justification for retrieving a pile of rusty metal, an obsolete machine. There is nothing to be recovered, no wetware.'  
'Sir, you think it's about _wetware_?' Anna spat 'Agent Hermann spent twenty-five years of his life in service to UNATCO, he should be brought back for a-'  
Reed pressed a hand to her mouth to muffle an inadvertent noise at the thought of Agent Hermann's _funeral_. No wonder the word would not pass Navarre's lips. Mr Simons was.... was he shaking his head in the negative?  
'A what? A military funeral? For a machine? What a grand _joke_! An assemblage of rusty metal does not deserve a military funeral. It does not deserve anything of the kind, actually. It's meant for actual people-'  
_SPLAT_. Janice jerked up and pressed her face to the opening in the doorway. Anna Navarre had thrown something in Walton Simons' face, and he looked angry at first, until he looked down at the object and sneered.  
'Is that a resignation, Agent Navarre? Throwing your insignia in my face?' the man inquired mildly.  
Agent Navarre did not reply immediately, both of her arms braced on the heavy wooden desk and breathing heavily.  
'How dare you- Gunther is- was not a _machine_!' she seethed.  
Walton Simons only replied with a derisive snort.  
'He was even _more_ of a machine than you, Navarre. Worse still, a hideous and outdated one.'  
'Who has sworn the _oath_ of service to the Coalition-' the woman was trying to rally back.  
Mr Manderley's replacement shook his head.  
'A machine is, by definition, incapable of swearing any binding oaths' he pointed out impassively. 'It is not a person, it cannot be upheld to the same standards... it cannot _feel_.'  
He paused, his gray-blue eyes focusing on Anna with laser precision.  
'Enlighten me. How does it feel to _kiss_ a machine? One that is already... how would I put it? _Dead_... out of order... What is it like, to kiss something that will _never_ kiss you back?'  
Reed heard a sharp intake of breath behind her. Sergeant Michael Berry, waiting his turn next to her desk, was staring wide-eyed at the door.  
'Did Mr Simons just imply-'  
Janice shushed him with an impatient gesture, raising her hand to knock on the door, to give the new boss a piece of her mind. To use what he'd seen on the infolink only to _taunt_ Agent Navarre- it was beyond _cruel_.  
The woman herself jerked back as though the new chief had hit her, her hands folded behind her back. She was silent for the longest while.  
'How did you- how _dare_ you-' Anna sounded beside herself, Reed had never known her to speak like that, not once in the twenty years she had known her.  
Simons said nothing, just smirked, and Reed could very well imagine what he was thinking - pretty much what most people thought about Navarre. At least he was smart enough not to voice it aloud. In the next moment, Navarre had Gunther's heavy gun in her hands, and before either the secretary or Berry could do anything, she pressed the trigger.  
'That's for Gunther!' she shrieked even as the point-blank blast from the plasma gun _vaporized_ UNATCO's temporary director.  
Janice scarpered back behind her desk as fast as she could. The event was pretty much instantaneous, there was no point in calling Dr Reyes or guards to assist Mr Simons. Anna Navarre did not look twice at the smoking remains, nor at her rank insignia, gleaming golden on the heavy desk. She slung the plasma gun back into the harness and checked that the straps held it in position, before leaving the office. Reed's hand hovered over the alarm button, but then the woman did not seem to be aggressive, not anymore.  
In fact, looking closely, the secretary saw that Navarre's eyes were glassy. She walked past both Reed and Berry as though she wasn't aware of their presence at all. The sergeant cautiously trailed her through the corridor, far enough not to alarm Anna or anyone else. A couple minutes later, he was back at Janice's desk.  
'Hells. She just walked out, calm as anything. No one suspected a thing.' he paused and closed the door to the chief's office before sitting down in a chair. 'Reed, do tell me- what in the _everloving fuck_ was the man thinking?'  
Janice could only offer a helpless shrug.  
'I can't claim to have known the man in any way. He seems to have viewed his subordinates as pawns, not actual people, and his views on the augs... Those statements we just heard were not isolated' she winced 'For all of his intelligence, he failed to understand that people cannot be made to obey orders... or listen to statements so impersonal as to be cruel...'  
'Cruel is the only way I can describe his words. Gunther has served with us for years, and he would deny him a military send-off?'  
'Not just a military one. _Any_ funeral at all, if I understood that correctly.' Reed shook her head, her mouth tightening into a line. 'And then to taunt Anna like that- _I_ would have snapped, and I was not the one put in her situation- _anyone_ would have, and Navarre was never a particularly _stable_ person-'  
Berry frowned.  
'Did I hear that correctly? Did he imply Anna kissed Gunther- _after_ he was...?'  
'Yes, he did, and before you ask - it did happen. He saw it on her infolink feed, just as I did. He did not say anything on that, so I didn't either, I thought he missed it- it was just an instant...'  
'Hells. He knew it _did_ happen, and he knew Navarre is- well- none too stable, and he still _taunted_ her with the fact-' the sergeant shook his head.  
'I think he assumed, like most people do, that she does not feel anything at all. She just proved him - and us - wrong, I suppose. Poor Anna...'  
'Twenty four years spent by Hermann's side. Hell only knows how many of them she spent _pining_ for him-' and here, Berry laughed mirthlessly 'We all knew Gunther had the feelings for her, and it never occurred to us they might have been _reciprocated_... And she just off and left. I was never a fan of hers, but I can't help but wonder how will she manage without him?'  
'You are not the only one to ask that question...' Janice sighed heavily.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I said in the last chapter - Simons *is* an asshole in the game, and clearly sees augs as only machines, and brushes people's feelings aside like they don't matter ('I was sick of his moaning about Navarre')
> 
> If something looks familiar - I shamelessly stole and rephrased both Anna and Gunther's reactions to their killphrases ('How did you know...?' and 'I- am- not- a machi-')


End file.
